Senior Portraits ::{Haleigh}::

GORGEOUS! Right? I got to do Jace's cousin, Haleigh's senior pictures this afternoon. It was freezing cold, but she took it like a champ and you can't even tell that we were all dying. Haleigh, you are a model! So glad I got to do these for you.

::{read the second to last paragraph please!}::

Doing this shoot made me crave a little sister for Ellie... even if the thought only lasted .2 seconds :)

These cute little sisters were BFFs and loving all over each other the entire time. Never before have I photographed such hams!! It was awesome. I didn't even have to ask them to smile. Just stick them in front of the camera and vwa-la! Perfect smiles.

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There are many changes going on around here... the biggest being that I'm taking a good long break. I blogged a while back that I would be taking December off, but it may be longer than I had originally thought (maybe another month or two). Nothing major going on... I just want to be a wife and mom for a little while. If you are interested in booking a session, please email me and I will let you know if and when I can accomodate you. If I am not available at the time that you are needing pictures, I know a couple of great photographers that are. Thank you for being understanding, and please continue to check the blog as I will continue posting!

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{erinhouseholderphotography@gmail.com}

P.S. I will pay someone 5 million dollars if you can tell me WHY IN THE WORLD I can't center my pictures! I upload to flickr or photobucket and then copy and paste the html into blogger. Then I click on the picture and click on the center button. It always shows up centered in my post while I'm writing, but then it does a left alignment in the post. HELP!

::{Coming Up}::

From three of my most recent sessions...

Soft Light tutorial

Want to give your pictures a little POP? Here's a quick and easy trick to give your pictures contrast and bring out deeper color. I'm doing this in Photoshop CS4, but you can use these same steps in GIMP (a free editing program that you can download from the internet... similar to, but not as advanced as, Photoshop).

Welcome to the layers palette. This is your best friend. There is not a single picture I edit that I don't use layers.

Step ONE:

-After opening your image, hold down Ctrl + J.

-A new layer will pop up called Layer 1. Click on it.

-Directly above Layer 1 there is a drop down box. Click on it and select Soft Light.

Step TWO:

Lower the opacity to your liking. I usually choose 30% depending on the picture. If it's a picture of a person (which is what I am editing most of the time) I never go above 40%. If it's a flower or landscape, I may go as high as 50-60%.

Step THREE:

Add a layer mask to Layer 1 by clicking the rectangle icon with the circle in the middle on the bottom of the layers palette. Layer masks let you control where the effect goes on an image. Lot's of contrast = yucky and unnatural looking skin tones, so that's where the layer mask comes in. We're going to 'mask' the effect where her skin is so that the Soft Light is in a way erased or masked from her skin.

Step FOUR:

Follow steps 1-3 and then begin painting over the skin, avoiding areas like the eyes and lips. I also mask out hair sometimes. It just depends on each picture.

When masking skin, at first you may not be able to tell a difference. You really need to train your eyes. There is a difference though and after a while you will see it.

And here's a side by side of the finished product. It's subtle, but adds just enough pop without going overboard.



Please let me know if this was helpful to you!

::{Cambree . Ridge . Brecklynn}::

You may recognize these kids, seeing as this was my third session with them! Yes, Chantel is single handedly keeping me in business. This was supposed to be their family session, which didn't end up working out, so we did a mini session with just the kids. Ellie even got to tag along. I have to say, I won't be making that mistake again! Love the girl, but she was a little distracting.

Don't you just love the fall colors? Chantel did a great job picking out outfits. Very fall looking, isn't it? I'm so jealous of those of you that have REAL Fall! Ours is very blah.

A new edit is in the works! It has an antique feel with blue tint. So I'll be real original and call it my Blue Antique edit...

Love this...

The only bad thing about being behind the camera all the time is that I don't have any shots like this of me and my baby. Anyone want to take some pictures of Ellie and I? :)

::{Giddy Up}::

You might be able to tell by looking at these just who stole the entire show. No, it wasn't the horses. It was Jackson! This little man is absolutely the cutest little cowboy. A new location with some very large props was a little nerve racking at first, but SO much fun!